Conventionally, a display panel of a so-called active matrix driving method constituted by a thin film transistor (hereinafter also referred to as a “TFT”) over a glass substrate has been fabricated by patterning various kinds of thin films by a light exposure process using a photomask as well as a manufacturing technique of a semiconductor integrated circuit.
Production technologies by which a plurality of liquid crystal display panels is obtained from one mother glass substrate has been applied to efficient mass production. The size of a mother glass substrate used for manufacturing a display panel became larger from 300 mm×400 mm in the first generation in the early 1990s to 680 mm×880 mm or 730 mm×920 mm in the fourth generation in 2000. Thus, the production technology has developed, so that a number of display panels can be obtained from one substrate.
When the size of a glass substrate or a display panel is small, patterning treatment can be carried out relatively easily by using a light exposure apparatus. However, as the substrate size is enlarged, the entire surface of a display panel cannot be processed by carrying out a single light exposure. Consequently, such a method as the area where a photoresist is applied is divided into plural blocks, and light exposure is performed on each block; thus, the entire surface of a substrate can be exposed by repeating the light exposure process, or other methods have been developed. (Reference 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-326951).
A droplet discharge technology has been used for printing text and images; however, the technology has been lately applied to pattern formation in the semiconductor field. For example, a method by which a method for discharging droplets onto a predetermined area, that is, ink-jet for forming a film pattern of a conductive wiring or the like can be improved is proposed. Reference 1 discloses a method for forming a film pattern by ink-jet acquiring a film with thicker thickness and thinner width without disconnection, short circuit, or the like even in the case of forming a conductive film (Reference 2: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-133691).